Editing Mob rule (section)

== Origin ==
[[Polybius]] appears to have coined the term ochlocracy in his 2nd century BC work ''[[The Histories (Polybius)|Histories]]'' (6.4.6).<ref>
{{cite web
 |url         = https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Plb.+6.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0234
 |title       = Polybius, Histories, The Rotation of Polities
 |publisher   = www.perseus.tufts.edu
 |access-date  = 2008-03-29
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080226215813/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Plb.+6.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0234
 |archive-date = 2008-02-26
}}
</ref> He uses it to name the "pathological" version of popular rule, in opposition to the good version, which he refers to as democracy. There are numerous mentions of the word "ochlos" in the [[Talmud]], in which "ochlos" refers to anything from "mob", "populace", to "armed guard", as well as in the writings of [[Rashi]], a Jewish commentator on the Bible. The word was first recorded in English in 1584, derived from the [[French language|French]] ''ochlocratie'' (1568), which stems from the original Greek ''okhlokratia'', from ''okhlos'' ("mob") and ''kratos'' ("rule", "power", "strength").

Ancient Greek political thinkers<ref>[[Plato]] ''Statesman'', 302c</ref> regarded ochlocracy as one of the three "bad" forms of government ([[tyranny]], [[oligarchy]], and ochlocracy) as opposed to the three "good" forms of government: [[monarchy]], [[aristocracy]], and [[democracy]]. They distinguished "good" and "bad" according to whether the government form would act in the interest of the whole community ("good") or in the exclusive interests of a group or individual at the expense of justice ("bad").{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Polybius' predecessor, [[Aristotle]], distinguished between different forms of democracy, stating that those disregarding the [[rule of law]] devolved into ochlocracy.<ref>[[Aristotle]] ''Politics'', Bk IV, Part IV</ref> Aristotle's teacher, [[Plato]], considered democracy itself to be a degraded form of government and the term is absent from his work.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Blössner |first=Norbert |chapter=The City-Soul Analogy |editor-last=Ferrari |editor-first=G. R. F. |others=Translated from the German by G. R. F. Ferrari |title=The Cambridge Companion to Plato's Republic |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 }}</ref>

The threat of "mob rule" to a democracy is restrained by ensuring that the rule of law protects [[Minority group|minorities]] or individuals against short-term [[demagoguery]] or [[moral panic]].<ref>[[Jesús Padilla Gálvez]], Democracy in Times of Ochlocracy, Synthesis philosophica, Vol. 32 No.1, 2017, pp. 167–178.{{cite journal |url=http://hrcak.srce.hr/190389 |title=Demokracija u vremenu ohlokracije |journal=Synthesis Philosophica |date=23 August 2017 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=167–178 |doi=10.21464/sp32112 |access-date=2017-12-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224042438/http://hrcak.srce.hr/190389 |archive-date=2017-12-24|last1=Padilla Gálvez |first1=Jesús |doi-access=free }}</ref> However, considering how laws in a democracy are established or repealed by the majority, the protection of minorities by rule of law is questionable. Some authors, like the Bosnian political theoretician Jasmin Hasanović, connect the emergence of ochlocracy in democratic societies with the [[Criticism of democracy|decadence of democracy]] in [[Neoliberalism|neo-liberal]] [[Western world|Western societies]], in which "the democratic role of the people has been reduced mainly to the electoral process".<ref name="auto"/>